Downloading…

Today I present you the episode download of uPod. In contrast to other podcast players, uPod provides a transparent mechanism, which clearly shows you what will be downloaded next: The download queue (see the first screenshot at the bottom). Like the playlist the download queue is an episode list which you can reorder via drag and drop. The currently downloading episode is pinned at the top. If a download fails the episode is marked with a red warning sign and is moved to the end of the download queue.

But how are episodes added to the playlist? There are two possibilities:

manually by starting an immediate download or by adding it to the queue using the relevant menu entry or

automatically

For automatic addition there are two options in the download settings (second screenshot):

Automatically add playlist episodes: All episodes you put on the playlist will also be added to the download queue.

Automatically add library episodes: All your library episodes will also be added to the download queue.

Downloading the queue can also be either started manually or automatically whenever a network is available. For the latter case you can specify in the settings whether only non-metered connections (Wifi) should trigger an automatic download. As soon as the configured connection isn’t available any more the download will be suspended. The automatic download will also run when your device is in standby. Note: If you manually start a download it will always start immediately — no matter which connection is available. If you want the download only to happen on your preferred connection you should add the episode to the download queue instead.

While a download is running you will find an informative notification in the status bar (third screenshot) showing you the download progress and the estimated remaining time. Further on the notification contains a button (on Jelly Bean and above) allowing you to suspend the download — it can be resumed later on.

To sum up: If you use the standard settings (automatically add all library episodes and automatically download on Wifi) you will never need to care about your downloads again — it will simply happen automatically in the background.